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| Living at
Strickley in the 1930's were four young Robinsons, Henry Wilson
(born 1916), William Arthur (born 1920),
Abigail Isabella (born 1922) and Margaret Frances (born 1924) They probably all kept diaries, and William Arthur's from 1940 gives an insight to the daily work on the farm, as well as a record of the weather for the whole year.
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|
Click here
for a month by month account of life at Strickley during the early days
of the war.
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|
The elder son, Henry Wilson Robinson was a prolific diarist, and these extracts are taken from diaries beginning written in 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939 Wilson was married in 1938, and from then on the diaries also refer to his life at Over Bleaze. The fields at Over Bleaze are now (2006) part of Strickley. Grateful thanks to Wilson for allowing me to publish these extracts and apologies to those who don't know the farm or family and may be puzzled by some of the references Click here to see all the field names. |
| 1937 |
| JANUARY |
| 1st Willie in bed |
|
4th 3 children in bed
|
| FEBRUARY |
| 4th Went to Farleton hedging and ploughing competition |
| 7th Sunday. Rev S Swidenbank |
| 8th Sold Old Dick to Blackpool Tower Co. Ltd. Zoo Department |
| 9th Chopping straw and hay for horses |
| 16th Sold horse. Dolly 17.1 hands high. First prize £56 |
| 19th Sawing wood. Belt gave way. |
|
28th Sunday. Very very stormy. Lifted
slates of cow shippon. Heavy fall of snow and large drifts.
|
| MARCH |
| 2nd Scaling muck at home and for R Gibson, Over Bleaze |
| 3rd Still snow showers. Masons here slating. To Borrans and Ghyll Mill for slates. |
| 10th Father at Penrith Horse Sale. Too dear. |
| 12th Singed Fanny |
| 17th Father at Carlisle and bought horse, Jess. |
| 24th Uncle Willie Brown passed away. |
| 27th Father at uncle Willie Brown's funeral. Set off 8.00 am, not back till 11.45 pm. |
|
28th SSA at Homescales. Preacher S
Wood
|
| APRIL |
|
3rd Jess at Smithy |
| 7th Threw cart over with runaway horse, Jess |
| 9th Father and Willie spent all morning trying to get a lamb and then failed. Ewe died. Let foal mare (Nora) out to grass for a few hours. |
| 26th Yoked foal mare to harrow |
|
27th Nora foaled bay filly. Vet
took cleansing away
|
| MAY |
| 8th Uncle Willie and Auntie Maggie here for weekend |
| 10th Father and Willie at auction mart with 2 fat heifers |
| 12th Coronation. Great doings. Went to Gibsons (Over Bleaze). Heard wireless. Ferret to Benthams, Bleaze Hall |
| 15th Willie to Elm Tree |
| 16th Sunday. Thunder. Turnips looking well considering condition they were put in, but are sorely in need of rain. |
| 18th Dad away ay Kirkby auction and show meeting |
| 20th Wilson at Ulverston |
| 25th Uncle Len, Auntie Kate and Mr & Mrs Brown here |
|
29th. Saturday. Wilson, Willie
and Abbie at Morecambe at night
|
| JUNE |
| 1st Dad and Mother at Low Woodhouse |
| 4th Took R Gibson's heifer out of Ormrods field back home by road. (A bad un). Nora to Proctors to be covered |
| 14th New Bamfords mowing machine came |
| 15th Clipped rough sheep |
| 16th Started hay |
| 18th Dad helping Holmescales thinning |
| 23rd Ferret had young |
|
30th Wet morning. Cutting meadow,
mending rakes, forking hay back, cleaning sheep, sawing wood, heltering
foal and Jess to smithy.
|
| JULY |
| 2nd Dad to Kendal to see a separator |
| 3rd Sowing nitre on mangolds and running them up. Scaling and turning in Meadow. Got 1/2 first piece into foot cock |
| 5th Amongst hay afternoon. Cutting a bit - piked out |
| 17th Finished hay. Mowing for Over Bleaze |
| 19th Cut hay for Over Bleaze (2 lumps) |
| 20th Helping Gibsons. Got 10 carts for them |
| 21st Heavy rain. Laid much corn |
| 24th Wilson to Kirkby Thore. Turning for R Gibson |
| 26th Wilson back from Kirkby Thore |
| 27th Tuesday. E. Burton married to E. Pearson. Finished hay for R Gibson |
| 29th Wilson at the Lakes. Stitch harrowing at night |
| 30th Wilson at Whitcham |
|
31st Saturday. Wilson & Willie at
Royal Lancs Show
|
| AUGUST |
| 5th Cleaning Meadow beck out all three of us. Corn ripening fast. Sparrow doing damage |
| 7th Wilson & Willie to Newton Rigg |
| 9th Mr Brown here |
| 10th Finished cleaning beck out of New Hutton Field. 30 carts in all |
| 11th Opened rigging up corn out and part of ley |
| 14th Wet day. Forking hay back. |
| 21st Finished cutting |
| 23rd Dad at Lunesdale Farmers Dinner |
| 27th Final arrangements to be made for Over Bleaze. (which Wilson was to rent) |
|
31st Helping Holmescales with
harvest
|
| SEPTEMBER |
| 8th Dad at Low Sizergh |
| 16th All at Kendal Show. Two firsts and two seconds YFC class |
| 17th Dad and Wilson at Hallbank sale. Bought 42 pullets at 6/- each. |
| 20th Thrashing at Strickley |
| 23rd Getting potatoes up for Gibsons |
| 24th Moss End sale |
| 26th Milnthorpe, Stricklandgate and Old Hutton Harvest Festival services |
|
30th Holme Park sale. Woodhouse
thrashing.
|
| OCTOBER |
| 3rd Challon Hall and New Hutton Harvest Festival service |
| 4th Kendal auction with fat heifer and 20 rough sheep, back 20 for Bob Gibson, Over Bleaze |
| 5th Frosty. J Dixon new cake merchant here for orders. Dad to Penrith Sales |
| 8th Dad back from Penrith Sales. Sold 2 bulls, Willie's club calf 26 gns, my club calf 27 gns |
| 9th Willie and Dad at tup sale. Sold 3 at 15½, 9 and 8½ gns and bought one for 9 gns. |
| 11th - 15th Threshing at 5 different farms |
| 18th Mowing and carting bracken off Holmescales Lots |
| 21st Rabbitting - 17 |
| 22nd Crushing oats. Belt broke |
| 25th Wilson to town to have photograph taken |
| 26th Laid cows in |
|
27th Rabbitting. Got 6. Killed a
whether hogg which had gone off it's legs for eating
|
| NOVEMBER |
| 2nd All at Horse Sale |
| 6th Holmescales had ferrets and got 65 rabbits. |
| 7th Aunt Edith from Hagg passed away. |
| 9th At Hagg to buy W. W. hens etc |
| 10th Wilson's 21st Birthday party. Aunt Edith buried at Parkside, Kendal |
| 11th Willie to Elm Tree. 17 hens and hen house from Hagg and other bits of things. Put hen house up in Brant Strickley. |
| 12th - 15th Very hard frost |
| 22nd Rent Day. Carting muck at Over Bleaze |
|
26th Friday F.M.M. 60 - 70 here.
10 cars
|
| DECEMBER |
| 4th Snowed al day. 1 inch |
| 5th Snowed another inch, but thawed slightly at night |
| 18th A lot more snow since 5th. Also very hard frosts since 5th |
| 25th All at Bridge House |
Extracts taken from diaries written in 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939
